Implementation

In the Classroom -- Past Results

In fall 2011, Power Ville was piloted in Principles of Engineering (POE) course at Burlington County Institute of Technology – a vocational school in New Jersey. One focus of POE is types of energy (non-renewable and renewable) and energy distribution. After learning these concepts in lectures, the class of 15 students played Power Ville as part of their laboratory activities. An online survey, administrated by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), was then given to the students upon their completion of the game. The survey instrument is particularly designed to assess the game’s realism, the utility and usability of the metacognitive and CI tools, and students’ impressions of what they had learned. It is important to note that this was formative data collection from students who are essentially beta testers. It is valid for suggesting game improvements, but not valid for making generalizations about any larger population.

One important finding from the survey is that some additional instruction may be necessary in order to maximize the learning experience for the students using the various tools provided within the game. There were various reactions towards the in-game tools, Road Map, KWS, and chat, but Road Map was utilized the most by students. Few students used chat and some felt KWS was an unnecessary feature. The larger issue is to help students understand that KWS is a simplified, specific instance of a general problem-solving framework that they will need to use throughout their careers in addressing challenges. Minor interface adjustments might make KWS and chat more appealing as tools and suggestions were given by the students including changing chat to a scrolling chat box on the screen instead of going through hierarchical menu options to access the chat.

The feedback survey administered to the students can be viewed below:
Fall 2011 Power Ville Feedback Survey
Right-click and click "Save link as..." to download a copy.

In the Classroom -- Future Plans

The game system consists of several modules that feature the applications of fundamental science and engineering for a city to function well and sustainably. The pre-engineering/technology-based courses at the participating schools and the freshman-level introductory engineering courses at Rowan and TSU have an important laboratory component, where we plan to implement our proposed games as a replacement to the traditional lab experiments. The game is a group assignment that requires each student in a group to log in the system with a security password to play it. While his/her login ID becomes visible to other players in the group, group discussion on the problem/solutions is then enabled through cyber-chatting, where group members are not necessarily present at the same place. The discussions as well as each player’s actions will be recorded in the system only accessible to instructors and researchers, providing a good resource to analyze student performance and game effectiveness in promoting learning.